At least 9 suspected militants were killed when an unmanned US predator drone targeted a house in North Waziristan Agency, early Wednesday morning, officials said.

PESHAWAR: At least 9 suspected militants were killed when an unmanned US predator drone targeted a house in North Waziristan Agency, early Wednesday morning, officials said.

The missiles were fired at a house in the Spalga area some 12km from Miranshah, said an official. “At least nine militants were killed,” he said, adding that the building was completely destroyed.

Local sources told The Express Tribune that at around 6:50am, a huge explosion was heard. They said that those killed were “not residents” of the area. The view was shared by intelligence officials who said that there was a possibility that the men killed were from Punjab. However, there was no independent or immediate confirmation about the identities of those killed.

The strike, fifth this year, comes amid reports in the international media that the US is considering a formal apology over the Salala check-post attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

finally, i am glad that the newspapers now started mentioning killing of ‘ten people’ instead of ‘ten militants’ in drone attacks. Its nice to finally see people realizing that drones are indiscriminately killing humans in the tribal areas, thats just a whole other story that we are shamelessly and spinelessly looking at it and not raising a voice against it.

may allah bless the drones.
they are removing the religious extremist filth from our society which are a real threat to the rest of the people.but this campaign has to be extended into the southern punjab & karachi also,as extremist religious ideology is very prevalent in these areas.
There are too many madrassas preaching hatred,oppression of women,homophobia & hatred of any one non-muslim in these areas & those madrassas need to be taken out by drones as our own govt. is too cowardly to take any action against these religious barbarians.Recommend

A headline in NY Times a few days ago, “Iraq Is Angered by U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies.” And these were only surveillance drones, not the ones which drop bombs. But we are so large hearted. We welcome ‘friends’ to come into our territory and bomb our own people. Collateral damage is no problem. After all NWA is too far off, we dont hear no thunder and it’s not our children or sisters that are being killed. So yes please continue with your Hell fire missiles to bomb the mud houses and keep giving us dollars so that we can buy some more mansions and palaces in Europe and the US. Dont worry about our sovereignty, international law, your own law and violations of human rights. Yes please keep it up.

suspected??? Let’s make your job easier by putting all Pakistani population into suspected list, and ask Pakistani population to show their ‘innocence certificate’, otherwise ready to bear consequence.

What’s the definition of ‘suspected people’?? Taliban sympathizers comes under suspected list?? What about those ‘officials’ who are negotiating with Taliban in Qatar?? Those officials want Taliban in govt. mainstream. Aren’t they sympathizers too???

Well. This is sad news indeed. Some people are happy that these drones are removing religious extremists. They just need to learn that we need to keep our house in order by ourselves. They must also remember thar Once these religious extremists were American allies. Americans turned their back towards them and started treating them with drones. Now americans are allies with moderate forces. Who know when they will turn their back to modern forces and start patronising Religious extremists again. If such a time comes and drones start hitting cinema halls or things like that on grounds that these are centers of non religious extremism. So where they will stand then.
We need to determine ourselves how we need to treat things inside our territory. Thats it

Who is responsible for this loss if ultimately it is established that they were not terrorists. After all a drone is an manned device and its controller, sitting miles away can only see the television images.

By the way why don’t Pakistan remove the the reason for drone attacks. If that is done US would have no justification in conducting drone strikes. At least managing that part of Pakistan is in Pakistan’s hand if not the drone strikes themselves

America has lost the war in Afghanistan but has won the hearts of many of the ET readers; Pakistani Liberal Extremists is what i like to call them. They are stuck in the year 2001 and still think America is the great savior and are over estimating the amount of terrorism that is actually taking place. Ignorance is a theme that unites us across the globe.

Vienna,February 08,2012
Boys,the proof is the pudding.Pakistan should realize it can not
get away with “offensive difense ” policy against the rest of the
world.Come on close your borders against all neighbours.Inport
terrorist guests under your sovereign will to take all the pounding
as pudding.
Taravadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring TTTMM Indida
–Kulamarva Balakrishna

We are loosing our sovereignty. It is notes a shame for us to call militants militants who belong the country Pakistan, or are Pakistanis, but other leaving drones in the country Pakistan is a lost of sovereignty, at least nominal sovereignty.

Thanks US and Drones for wiping out these militants from our land. Thanks a lot and we think you are doing a great service of the people of Pakistan for killing those guys who do bomb blasts in Peshawar, Lahore and Kabul.

Thanks a lot you Drones. You finish off some more terrorists who will otherwise do bomb blasts in our markets, mosques, Dagahs, and Hujraas. We, pukhtuns, call it Ababeel as it exactly target the militants and save the people of that area from terrorists. Thanks USA and thanks Obama for helping us.

We should admire such nice job done by even Indians. We are incapable to eliminate terrorists from our soil, hence this is being done by Allah Almighty through non-Muslim powers. We should keep in mind the famous verses of Al-Baqra.:

It never ceases to amaze me that almost everyone from Imran Khan to my milkman (and I dont know which of them is more ill informed), seem to believe, without any facts or figures that the drones are targeting innocent civilians. For one thing, if they are, then why is the jihadi mafia so worried about it? Killing innocent civilinas, 35000 to be exact, has never pushed them to hold a single anti taliban rally? But on a more factual plane, I advise those interested in facts to look up Dr. Farhat Taj’s survey of FATA persons about the drones. This is the only study done on the matter to my knowledge. It may interest some of you to learn that the overwhelming majority supported the attacks as relieving them of the terror of the AlQaeda and their local affiliates. Their is no issue of sovereignty involved here. we lost our sovereignty of the area in 2003-4 to these scum and now the US and Pakistan are in agreement, to retrieve it by eliminating these terrorists. Public posturing by Pak officials notwithstanding, not a single drone has ever been shot down nor even attempted to be shot down.THINK!

@Reasonable: I second this statement wholeheartedly. Can’t the Pakistan army remove the reason for these drone attacks? After all this is Pakistans own territory, right? What is stopping them from taking out these evil madmen? Why can’t all who have commented in these columns against the drone attacks answer this question first? Where are all those ‘ distinguished’ gentlemen who sat on the dais at the Difa E Pakistan rallies? Let them answer this first. The answer is the army is either incompetent or reluctant to take out this menace for reasons best known to them. Take your pick.Recommend

In keeping with many others . . . thank you, USA. The drones are doing Pakistan a favor and should continue their good work until these murderous militants are brought to their knees. To all those well meaning but misguided souls who are so worried about Pakistan’s sovereignty – where were you when the Taliban violated that sovereignty by indiscriminately killing civilians in crowded places?

Something that is most important not being discussed by anyone here i.e. US has lost its war in Afghanistan and trying to blame Pakistan for its failure. evidence of US failure in Afghanistan: US is negotiating with these ‘murderers’ (according to CIA, not to many), and meanwhile attacking into Pakistani territory using drones technology to destabilize Pakistan, in similar way as they did in Afghanistan.